PURE WRATH - Bleak Days Ahead review

 

PURE WRATH - Bleak Days Ahead

Debemur Morti Productions

This is the fourth full length by this Indonesian one man Black Metal act PURE WRATH. A few years ago I picked up the third full length, Hymn to the Woeful Hearts, which originally came out in 2022. It was in a store, it had a great cover plus the band name was cool as well as the release being on Debemur Morti Productions. I mean everything said yeah this was gonna be great. Musically it was standard Atmospheric Black Metal not much different from French or Quebec acts. I mean hey just look at the label they're on. But hey I liked it a lot.

So here we are with this newest one. And for the record the one man behind PURE WRATH is Ryo (aka: Januaryo Hardy) who is responsible for all instrumentation. Just for the record he uses plenty of keyboards as well as audio sound-bites. Also Ryo is involved in at least a half dozen other Indonesian Metal acts. So to call him prolific is a given.

While listening to this new release I can easily say compared to his previous full length this one has a darker touch. Ryo's vocals are always harsh with a emphisis on anger and despair. So the way the first two title tracks, Parts one & two, come at you is with fierce tremolo picked icy riffage but also toss in breaks of melodic keyboard moments. The other three tracks fall into the same depressive meloncolly trope.

This is late night Black Metal for depressive types who've given up on everything except being creative in their misery. It's that bare light bulb illuminating very little in a darkness that is put there by personal choices. Still it's another good release by Ryo. Although I'm really a fan of Hymn to the Woeful Hearts. In fact before I checked out this new one I ended up playing Hymn to the Woeful Hearts five times in a row that night. Go Figure?    

https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

LISTEN HERE:

https://purewrath.bandcamp.com/album/bleak-days-ahead

BLUT AUS NORD - Ethereal Horizons review

 

BLUT AUS NORD - Ethereal Horizons

Debemur Morti Productions

So here we have the sixteenth full length by the French Black Metal band BLUT AUS NORD. Out of all of the second generation French BM acts I've always stuck with BLUT AUS NORD because they started out weird in the mid to late 90's. But I believe it was their sixth full length, Odinist - The Destruction of Reason by Illumination, which put them to the forefront of the French BM scene. 

Fast forward to 2011 when the band started that 777 trilogy which lasted to 2012. The first two albums were good but the third blew. From then onward BLUT AUS NORD has tried to erase everything Black Metal about themselves. 2022's Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses full length is were I got tired of it. And this new one seals the deal for me to stop being a fan.

BLUT AUS NORD started out as a cool BM act into progressing their sound with atmospheric touches and an avant-guard smack to the face. As of now with this release they're shoe-gazer bullshit. I mean sure if I was high on pot or tripping on some hallucinogenics then I'd really like this. But I'm not a fucking post hipster wannabe hippie. Also I hate those types of people. 

Sure the production on here is outstanding. You've got a wall of sound akin to those Euro BM shoe-gazers of decade or so ago. There's plenty of synth work. Oddly enough there's a touch of depressive French Post Punk going on here. In the end I chalk this one up to the same feelings I had for 2022's Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses. It's avant-garde BM to fall asleep to.

https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

LISTEN HERE:

https://blutausnord.bandcamp.com/album/ethereal-horizons

PESTILENT HEX - Sorceries Of Sanguine and Shadow review

 

PESTILENT HEX - Sorceries Of Sanguine and Shadow 

Debemur Morti Productions

It's good to see some newer bands making early era Black Metal great again. In this band's case it's Symphonic BM but not from what you've been exposed to by the generic wannabes who copied past greats. PESTILENT HEX are a two piece act hailing from Finland who started out back in 2017. Their debut album, The Ashen Abhorrence, came out in 2022 and on Debemur Morti Productions. 

On this their second full length their sound is some what grandiose, definitely hypnotic and harsh as fuck. The band consists of multi-instrumentalist Lauri Laaksonen who's responsible for the guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. I know him from his work in the death metal act DESOLATE SHRINE. Matti Makela is responsible for the vocals and lyrics. Once again I know this guy from his work in the death metal band CORPSESSED. 

So with all that said this duo takes the old 1990's Symphonic BM style and compresses it into something morbid yet classical to a point. The opening piano instrumental piece "Nocturne" is a perfect example of BEETHOVEN deranged. From that point onward it's controlled chaos meets a wall of sound with ice covered tremolo picked riffs, over the top blast beat drum work and some cool sickening and harsh vocals. The keyboard parts are held into the rhythm background. 

The seven cuts on here (six real songs and the above mentioned intro) take the listener to realms where you feel like you've been thrown out into your back yard naked. You're surrounded by hungry wolves held on leashes by black hooded figures who you cannot recognize. Let the raveness torture begin with some synths in the background. In the end you're enveloped by the harsh beauty even with diabolical pain. 

I always say the best BM releases come out when the temperature is low. The past three nights listening to this it's been below freezing after midnight. That's real atmosphere to concern oneself when it comes to Black Metal. I'm enjoying this one a lot in a way that's on a plane of existence. A horrific place where I just can't resist. 

https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

LISTEN HERE:

https://pestilenthex.bandcamp.com/album/sorceries-of-sanguine-shadow

ARKONA - Stella Pandora review

 

ARKONA - Stella Pandora

Debemur Morti Productions

First off this is ARKONA from Poland and not the Russian band of the same name. As far as this band goes they've been around since the mid-90's. I first got into em in the late 2000's when I picked up their third CD Nocturnal Arkonian Hordes which came out in 2002. I got another release by em, Lunaris, from 2016. Both of those CDs are cool but I never was a completest with this band. 

So here we are with ARKONA's 8th full length and just for the record the band does have a ton of material out their whether it's comps or short form releases. Anyways this Polish band's sound is melodic symphonic black metal. Now if you're probably going "Ah What" then let me explain. For those of us who have been listening to BM for decades we know symphonic black metal has been heavily criticized. I mean the only BM which has gotten worse attacks has been hipster BM which ain't BM at all. But hey it's 2024.

What I like about ARKONA is that they take the old ways of say DARK FUNERAL and DIMMU BORGIR then add in some cool atmosphere instead of the over the top synths or Czech orchestras. Yeah this four piece act is steeped into the late 1990's BM all the way. To me it's cool and comforting. The vocals are harsh. The riffs are punishing as well as icy. The rhythm section is fucking amazing. What synths there are is held so far in the background that they matter little. 

In the end I like this a lot especially listening to it late at night. I give props to the drum work on here because it's savage. The vocals come across as agonizing as well as sorrowful. And the song structures on all six tracks are interesting. Stella Pandora just has a good flow as it plays out. Melodic Symphonic Black Metal ain't a band sub genre anymore.  

https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

LISTEN HERE:

https://arkona.bandcamp.com/album/stella-pandora

PURE WRATH - Hymn to the Woeful Hearts review

 

PURE WRATH - Hymn to the Woeful Hearts

Debemur Morti Productions

Over the years there's been some cool black metal acts of the atmospheric realm that construct releases based on stories. Some times the stories are based in myth or historic tales. And of course the two main themes are always triumph or tragedy. After reading about the background theme of Hymn to the Woeful Hearts it's definitely tragedy we're talking about here.

Also a continuing theme is that the artists conveying these tales are more like classical composers. Of course instead of orchestral music we get black metal. The composer here is multi-instrumentalist Januaryo Hardy from Indonesia. He basically takes charge of the vocals, guitars, bass and keyboards. There's also some session musicians who handle drums as well as some keyboards, cello and added guitar parts.

As far as the story here goes it's about a mother who survived the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-66 (aka: Indonesian Communist Purge) as well as her life afterwards following that event which saw her son kidnapped, tortured, and ultimately beheaded.

Now no matter the story it's the music that counts. As far as that goes I have to say sound-wise Hymn to the Woeful Hearts is an impressive piece of work. It's melodic black metal with plenty of atmospheric touches, some prog moments and of course some rage worthy riffs. 

Januaryo Hardy's vocals are a mix of harsh and some cleans. With the songwriting style he employs you can have some heavy duty blackened action which soften's up near the end. So the cleans as well as keyboards roll in as a break. Kinda reminds me of modern era ENSLAVED a bit albeit less proggy. Still overall it's an interesting and enjoyable release. 

https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

CULTUS PROFANO - Accursed Possession review

CULTUS PROFANO - Accursed Possession

Debemur Morti Productions

It wasn't that long ago when if someone said "Black Metal from California" it would be followed up with screams of "FALSE" all across Metal social media websites. CULTUS PROFANO are a black metal duo act from Los Angeles, California. Since they're on Debemur Morti Productions you could be sure the "F-Word" does not apply if anyone still harbors anti California BM feelings. 

This is my first time checking out CULTUS PROFANO. They've been around since 2016 and this is their second full length. Now let's be honest here. Over the past 25 years here US black metal acts, I'll say 75%, take their influences from Scandinavian BM. This band does not nor are the one of those unique sounding brutal acts from the early days of the scene. If anything this band reminds me of old school Hellenic BM. 

For starters the whole album has this putrid ambiance as if recorded in an ancient cemetery of unworthy souls. With the guitars providing a tremolo picked eerie atmosphere. Add to that the sick tortured vocals which are unsettling. What you've got here is something which sounds like an unearthed item of the past to be worshiped. Completely traditional BM which I think is one of the best I've listened to in 2020. 

https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

LISTEN HERE:

https://cultusprofano.bandcamp.com/releases

 

ULCERATE - Stare into Death and Be Still review

ULCERATE - Stare into Death and Be Still

Debemur Morti Productions




For me ULCERATE are that one cool blackened death band who you can play late at night and it will put you in a decent melancholy mood. Yeah I know that sounds kinda fucked up but then again why are you here? Anyways I've been thinking that way about this three piece band from New Zealand ever since their 2011 release, The Destroyers of All. That was their third full length and ever since I've followed them. I still don't have their first two albums so fuck me running.


As far as Stare into Death and Be Still goes well I'm gonna piss some people off (like what else is new) because I think this is far better than 2016's Shrines of Paralysis. Sure that last one was the mile marker for what they had been doing for years. This one shows that the band is pushing forth a more mature sound. Once the opening cut set forth I knew that there was a new element being set forth.


Prior ULCERATE albums always included a strict guideline to tech savy blackened death with some atmospheric touches to carry you along. This one throws the book away and goes straight for more complex song structures. It's like hearing the sounds emanating from a grey cloud of doom. Welcome the storm people which whips violent waves and slows down once to subtle breezes before some real violence commences. Yes this album is the epitome of a hurricane.


https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

https://ulcerate.bandcamp.com/album/stare-into-death-and-be-still

https://www.facebook.com/Ulcerate

ARCHGOAT - Black Mass XXX live album review

ARCHGOAT - Black Mass XXX live album

Debemur Morti Productions




So what would a black metal band do to celebrate their thirty years of spreading blasphemic evil upon the masses? Well in the case of Finland's ARCHGOAT it's put out a 27 song live album. Yeah I know for some of you true kvlt fuckers leftover from years ago you could probably think of something really worth while. Yeah like spreading a disease around the world right?


Anyways I can't say live releases by black metal acts are a real selling point for me. Attending the show itself is preferable but then again how many chances were there to ever see ARCHGOAT here in the states? So yeah there you go. And the big surprise here is that the recording quality is actually good. 


This was recorded back in September of 2019 at a Debemur Morti Productions’ Servants Of Chaos showcase. What's really cool about the band's performance on here is that they deliver twenty seven cuts which do span their career. Honestly that doesn't seem hard to do since Lord Angelslayer (bass and vocals) and Ritual Butcherer (guitars) have been in the band since day one. Over the years they've just gone through a bunch of drummers. 


Personally I look at this as a for fans only type of release. Then again I know a shitload of people who are huge ARCHGOAT fans. I didn't get into them until 2009's The Light-Devouring Darkness. I back tracked a little after that one. But thanks to Debemur Morti Productions I got my early ARCHGOAT fix made with the The Aeon of the Angelslaying Darkness 2xCD which came out in 2010. And those early cuts are on here as well as everything up to 2018’s The Luciferian Crown. So yeah if you're a fan then this is for you.


https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

https://archgoat666.bandcamp.com/album/black-mass-xxx

https://www.facebook.com/archgoat.official

ARCHGOAT - The Luciferian Crown review

ARCHGOAT - The Luciferian Crown

Debemur Morti Productions




I took an oath to this goat back in 2006 with their debut full length Whore of Bethlehem. Since then whether it's their full lengths or short form releases, this Finnish black metal institution never disappoints. ARCHGOAT does something which is a rarity in metal and that's they get better with each new release without any dramatic changes to their sound. They advance but at their own pace which is carefully calculated.


The Luciferian Crown is an album of all positives for these necro Finns. The production/sound quality is much clearer. They've added more depth by slowing down to a mid tempo approach on certain cuts. Albeit they still know how to push the slash and burn aesthetics. There's more computerized choir added on here which gives it a added gothic / somewhat symphonic appeal. The vocals are still in the growl mode, Riffs still punish and new drummer, Goat Aggressor, easily fits right into this bands patented sound. 


ARCHGOAT wears this crown well and this is, in my not so humble opinion, their best album by far.


https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

https://archgoat666.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/archgoat.official

CULTUS PROFANO - Sacramentum Obscurus review

CULTUS PROFANO - Sacramentum Obscurus

Debemur Morti Productions




So it's the closing days of February aka: Black Metal History Month. Yeah I know the whole BMHM thing is kind of a joke. Diehard fans resent it, the mainstream metal media uses it to mock the genre but for me I use it as a excuse to post music from Youtube by obscure BM on Facebook. So with that said it is fitting that here we have a new band that is the epitome of black metal especially in the old school sounding sense.

CULTUS PROFANO is a black metal male/female duo hailing from Los Angeles, CA. Ah yeah I know plenty in the extreme BM community who throw hate on black metal from places like Los Angeles as well as New York, San Fran and Seattle, especially Seattle. I won't argue against that because there's good reason for the hate. It's all about hipsters or phony losers trying to capitalize on a popular music genre. But CULTUS PROFANO has more street cred than I'd say most of the haters. 

This duo, which began in 2016, consists of Advorsus (drums & vocals) and Strzyga (guitar & vocals). Advorsus (aka: Arthur Mendiola) is also the drummer for long time death metal act SADISTIC INTENT as well as a bunch of other extreme acts. There's your street cred and yeah I have an old release by them so forget the hate and listen to the music. Which by the way sounds like Norwegian black metal 1992.

On a whole this somewhat reminds me musically of Wrath of the Tyrant era EMPEROR meets A Blaze in the Northern Sky era DARKTHRONE. The vocals are shared but Advorsus' is rough and grunt whereas Strzyga's is pure venomous sounding. She kinda reminds me of Ihsahn's screams. Listening to these nine cuts it's hard not to think of pure darkness with two sinister white faces staring back at you. The riffs are icy and sharp with a cool flair tempo and speed change ups giving certain cuts this enveloping feeling. Drumming is mostly typical blast beating but sound-wise they're muffled in order to not overwhelm. 

If CULTUS PROFANO's beginning vision with Sacramentum Obscurus was to create an absolutely perfect black metal album then they succeeded. This is blasphemy in it's purest sense.


https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

https://cultusprofano.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.facebook.com/CULTUS.PROFANO

DODSENGEL - Interequinox review

DODSENGEL - Interequinox

Debemur Morti Productions




On the blog here it says (well it use to say it) that 99.9% of music listeners hate extreme metal. I'll go a bit further in saying that 99.9% of black metal fans don't even know who DODSENGEL are. I mean you won't see them on magazine covers. They don't write columns for hipster websites. They won't be playing their 2012 two hour plus opus Imperator live in order to sell some merch. You can't tell them how much you love em on Facebook because they have no Facebook page. Hell if you belong to some black metal group on Facebook or elsewhere and asked one hundred people if they owned all of their previous releases you would get one hundred yes's but ninety percent of em would be lying. 


What I'm trying to convey (and it's not elitism) is that DODSENGEL are one of the best bands to come out of Norway's black metal scene in the past decade but not many people seem to acknowledge that. They do what black metal acts are suppose to do, put out good music and that's about it. Although I did have a hard time with their last one. Two hour long dinks, come on. Well be that as it may here is this duo's fourth full length which still sticks with what this band has always done. DODSENGEL takes the Norwegian black metal template and evolves within it. So many other acts try adding outside influences into their blackened sound to the point of trendiness. DODSENGEL just keep you guessing whether it's their twisted vocals, the unsettling melodies which either creep you out or blow you away which just keeps you transfixed. Another great release by them.

http://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

https://dmp666.bandcamp.com/album/interequinox

AU CHAMP DES MORTS - Dans La Joie review

AU CHAMP DES MORTS - Dans La Joie

Debemur Morti Productions

So this is the guy from ANOREXIA NERVOSA, Stéphane Bayle, and his latest blackened band? Hmmmm, it doesn't remind me of "Sodomizing the Archedangel" but then again what really does. Since the final (?) utterances from ANOREXIA NERVOSA were saddened, Stéphane Bayle still seems to be in a crying mood. 

This full length debut by AU CHAMP DES MORTS (they put out an EP last year) is atmospheric black metal dripping with the usual tears of despair and feelings of isolationism. Ya know what's funny? In the late 90s symphonic black metal was trendy. ANOREXIA NERVOSA was France's version of CRADLE OF FILTH. Now fast forward to present day and what's trendy in black metal? Yes it's atmospheric black metal and AU CHAMP DES MORTS is not far from say ALCEST, well partially. They haven't achieved full shoe-gaze yet.




The opener "Nos Décombres" was some what cheery but the rest is jangly riffs mixed with harsh blackened pain in the ass reality. When he's not screaming Stéphane Bayle is speaking plainly. There are other cuts where he shares vocals with the bassist Cecile G. I'll say it does provide some contrast like on "Le Sang, La Mort, La Chute" which is also one of the better songs on this debut. Musically this is majestic to say the least and yet there's a depressive angle fit for a doom outfit. 

Honestly on a whole, Dans La Joie is a spectacular sounding release. But with that said I'm not sold on black metal going contemporary because of all the outside of metal influences. Years ago when all of the shoe-gaze influences came in, at first it was fine but then the bands followed it up by going full on shoe-gaze (hello ALCEST, FEN and ALTAR OF PLAGUES). Then there was the term Post Black Metal, now pardon me but "post" in genre terminology means "moved on". Therefore post black metal is not black metal at all, right? You know when you push something far beyond it's known boundaries people just say "Wake me up when it's over."

Rating: 2/5 

http://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

https://www.facebook.com/Au-Champ-Des-Morts-1061663760580553

https://dmp666.bandcamp.com/album/dans-la-joie